


Alien

by Lulannie



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Abuse, F/F, Kara Danvers isn't Supergirl, literal xenophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 05:25:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14763458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lulannie/pseuds/Lulannie
Summary: Lena is required to attend her parents' anti-alien picket.





	Alien

**Author's Note:**

> why haven't the police turned up?
> 
> warning: instances of abuse

Lena's insides churn uncomfortably as the car glides down the smooth pavement. Her hands, sweaty, wring and scratch themselves. She looks across the backseat at Lex, nodding his head absentmindedly to the music playing through his headphones, outwardly bored. Lillian's eyes bore into Lena from the rear-view mirror, full of silent threats.

The picket signs rattle in the trunk.

Pulling up outside a pretty, stand-alone house, Lionel shields his eyes from the pale morning sun and the family disembark. He and Lex unload the car's contents and join the substantial crowd already encircling the home. Lena remains paralysed in the car, too stiff to even undo her seat-belt. She knows what comes next, but that makes it no easier.

The men out of sight, Lillian rounds the car and wrenches the back door open.

"Out."

Lena wishes she could summon as much as a defiant look, but her throat is full of bile and her brain full of cotton.

Lillian's head dives down toward Lena's. She can feel her mother's cold breath on her upper lip.

"You will not be making a fool of me today -"

Sharp fingers dig into tender bruises on Lena's rib cage -

"Is that clear?"

Pressing harder -

"Yes. Yes."

A final, brutal jab for good measure.

Slippery hands fumble for the seat-belt, before being thrust a large, white sign. Lena carries EARTH FOR HUMANS - GO HOME LITTLE GREEN SCUM across a well-kept lawn, the grass glistening in the cloudless day. If she could think straight, she might be grateful to be holding the least profane picket of the whole assembly.

Ripples of excitement run through the crowd, rumours about the alien discovered to be infiltrating this family of humans. Lionel starts up a chant and the mob begins to roll and swell like one creature. The heat and the sound and the sway of people makes the cotton in Lena's head expand, filling her nose and her ears and weakening the joints of her knees and she's falling and the picket is slipping -

And Lillian's fingers find bruises again - the ring around her hips, this time -  and everything resolves into clarity.

An angry hiss in Lena's ear is cut off by a surge in the crowd as some movement is spotted in an upstairs window. Lillian's face contorts into an awful leer and she drops Lena's waist to grip her sign with increased fervor.

Lena uses the opportunity to slip into a different part of the horde. She stands with Lex for some time, her brother buzzing with quiet excitement. They don't speak - he's fixated on the front door of the house - but she appreciates the less physical threat he represents. 

There's no visible movement from the Danvers residence for half an hour. The spectators mill about, refilling water bottles and laughing amongst themselves, as though waiting for the end of an interval at the theatre, while progressing through different chants and swapping out their pickets for some variety. Lena wanders round to the less dense area at the back of the house, sitting on her picket to avoid being burned by the hot pavement when she's sure Lillian can't see.

There's a sudden rush to the front of the house and the chants start up again, louder. Has the alien shown itself? Have the family confronted their audience?

There's only herself and an older couple round the back when she spots it. A figure, creeping out of a back door Lena hadn't even noticed. The figure is shaded by the house, but what are unmistakably eyes lock onto Lena's face. They're unnaturally bright - and scared - and drawn as if to say _please_?

Lena glances at the couple to her right, who are squinting at the second floor window. She can feel those bright eyes on her as she swallows thickly.

"There's some-  I think the alien is coming out the front door!"

The couple stare at her, then at each other, then shuffle hastily round towards the resounding yells by the road. She catches those bright eyes again, and gestures her head to the trees opposite the back door. The dark figure is alarmingly fast, and Lena drops her picket in chasing after it. She finds it waiting for her a little way into the thin wood.

It - she - is pretty. A little older than herself, blonde, lanky, tanned, and in possession of the bluest eyes Lena ever has seen.

"Thank you," she says, with a subtle, unplaceable accent.

Lena, unused to conversation with people her age (at least, conversation that doesn't begin with her being spat at) is understandably thrown.

The girl shifts from foot to foot, wary but curious. Lena notices her pull at the straps of a backpack.

"Are you running away?"

The girl laughs. Her laugh is even sunnier than her eyes.

"No. I'm going to school."

Lena blushes.

"Though," the girl continues, "It looks like I'll be late today."

"And tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that."

"Huh?"

"They won't just- They won't just stop. Not that they've found you."

"'They'? Didn't you have a cute sign of your own?"

Lena blushes again, wishing the thin trees offered enough shade to hide her shame.

"Well," the girl's laughter tinkles, "I'll just have to rely on you to sneak me out every morning, how about that?"

Unable to form a response, Lena simply watches as the girl lifts a wrist to check the time, the soft blonde hairs on her arm turning white in the sun. She takes a step forward, reaching out her hand.

"Kara Zor-El."

That's something she does know how to respond to.

"Lena."

The hand is warm and dry, and Lena wonders for a moment if aliens sweat. Her thoughts are cut off by the glimpse of a wink, a rush of air and a flurry of scattered leaves as Kara shoots off into the sky.

She stands in silence for some time, until she hears her name being called from a distance.

Lena steadies herself, and puts on her most defiant expression.  



End file.
